The Doctor-Tyler Family

Lessons with Dad

The Doctor pushed the TARDIS door in slightly and peeped through to see his son, standing at the console with his hands lightly resting on the edge. He'd thought he would find him here. The TARSIS had always been an extension of the Doctor-Tyler family home, and Jamie had been wandering it's halls, with and often without permission from his parents, ever since he could walk. It wasn't unusual to find him in the swimming pool, or messing around with the Zero Room, or in the slowly growing library, or just wandering around, but lately he'd been frequenting the console room. This was at least the fourth time the Doctor had caught him staring at the array of buttons, knobs, levers, thingies, and whatsits with longing, his fingers itching to touch them but holding back, partially in fear and respect of his parents, but mostly from the simple common sense that flying a Time Machine with no instructions was a good way to get lost forever.

"Jamie," the Doctor called softly. The boy's head turned to his father. "Hey, Daddy."

"Do you remember what day it is? You look like you're about to escape into a different one," the Doctor teased. Jamie hastily pulled his hands off the console. The Doctor, now standing beside him, placed a hand on his shoulder. "Happy birthday, James Theta Tyler."

"Thanks, Dad."

"So you're eight now, eh? Big year. You know," the Doctor said, looking at Jamie sideways, "back on Gallifrey, that was the age kids started at the Academy, training to become Time Lords." Jamie was listening closely; he'd heard stories dating as far back as "that recorder", and a Scottish man named Jamie who'd traveled with him, but his father almost never spoke about his childhood.

"We were taken to look into the Untempered Schism, staring into the depths of time. Be glad you don't have to look into one of those. Well, it might make time traveling easier for you, but it might also melt your brain out your ears." The Doctor grinned and patted Jamie on the back. "I remember being so excited after that - well, after I had gotten over being terrified. But what I was really excited for, was learning to fly a TARDIS. And you know what? We didn't even start learning about them for years!" The Doctor's grin widened, but he could see Jamie looked a little disappointed. He thought the purpose of this talk was to explain that it would be a long time before Jamie was flying anything. But the Doctor plowed on, continuing with: "But I think you can skip all that. Do you want to learn to fly her?"

The expressions on Jamie's face flashed heart-stoppingly quick - and the Doctor couldn't afford to have a heart stop now that he was down to just one. First confusion, then disbelief, then understanding, and finally, pure excitement and joy raced across his face. He nodded his head rapidly. "Yes!"

"I have to warn you, there's a lot to learn," cautioned the Doctor. "It will be years before you can fly it on your own."

"But I can still fly it with you and Mummy, right?" Jamie asked.

"As soon as you start learning."

"Then let's start!" Jamie exclaimed. The Doctor chuckled. "Okay, let's find something simple to start with..." He scanned the console, his eyes darting all over, before finally resting on a set of dials. "Ah, here we go. This, Jamie is the..."

XxxxxXxxxxxXxxxxxXxxxx

Two hours later, the Doctor decided they'd had enough for one day, even though Jamie was still going. "You can't learn too much in one session, or your brain will explode!" he warned.

"No it won't," laughed Jamie.

"It might. You don't want to test it. But really, if you try to learn everything at once you'll forget it all at once too."

"Okay," Jamie conceded, following his dad out into the living room. "Hey, Daddy, can we surprise Mummy and take her somewhere?"

"I thought it was your birthday!" the Doctor teased.

"Yes, and I want to surprise Mum for my birthday," Jamie explained in a patient, logical tone.

"Oh, alright then. Go tell her. Allons-y!" The birthday boy raced out. The Doctor chuckled again, and then started thinking about places they could go. There was a series of caves and waterfalls they could hike through on Nallfin, with a restaurant at the top, but it might be too fancy for Jamie. Then again, the Doctor was sure he could behave himself with the promise of the extraordinary chocolate cake they served there, and he would love the walk up.

"She's getting dressed!" Jamie called, and the Doctor walked out to his and Rose's room, where his wife was sifting through the closet.

"Jamie tells me you were giving him TARDIS lessons," Rose said without turning around.

"And I thought we were going to surprise you."

"He didn't tell me where we're going, though," Rose continued. "Did you forget we were going over to celebrate with my parents?"

The Doctor scratched his head. "Well, actually, I did, yeah. When did you tell me this again?"

"Yesterday," Rose reminded him. "It doesn't matter, I'll just call Mum and tell her we might be a bit late. Where are we going?"

"I was thinking Nallfin, 34th century, probably sometime in July. That restaurant there was still new around that time, and not very crowded yet."

"Did you learn from last time, then?" Rose asked, smiling, as she pulled out a purple blouse and black pants. "That was the longest wait of my life."

"Worth it though," the Doctor said. "And the entertainment they hired for the waiting crowd was very good."

"I still can't believe you actually volunteered to eat that!" Rose exclaimed. "After the man set it on fire, too."

"It wasn't bad."

There was a pounding on the door. "Mummy, are you ready to go yet?"

"Just a minute sweetheart!" Rose called.

"Go wait in the TARDIS, we'll be out in a second," the Doctor added. "And don't touch anything!" he warned. They listened to his retreating footsteps before Rose spoke again, now getting changed.

"So really, how much did you teach him?"

"Well," the Doctor said, considering. "He can almost get into the Vortex on his own, with just some help reaching some of the buttons. I don't think he's ready to touch anything in time travel, so we just kept it linear for now, but I told him a bit about how to do it. He's very good at using the turn signals, though."

"Turn signals?" Rose asked incredulously. "Is there often traffic in the Time Vortex?"

"Well, not in this universe. But there used to be," the Doctor said. "I wasn't really sure where to start, to be honest."

Rose chuckled. "I'm sure you did great. C'mon then," she said, finishing tying one sneaker - she'd learned from last time as well, when she'd lost on of her sandals on the trail - "let's go." She pecked the Doctor on the cheek. "Allons-y!" he cried suddenly, taking her hand and pulling her with him to their TARDIS.